Paul Laxalt’s now a writer - but keeping his day job

Brendan Riley

Sunday, Feb. 20, 2000 | 9:22 a.m.

CARSON CITY, Nev. - After a storied career in state and national politics, Paul Laxalt has taken to book-writing. But the first-time author says, "I'm going to hang onto my day work."

He's just finished "Nevada's Paul Laxalt - a Memoir," 393 pages about his youth and rapid rise to political prominence in Nevada, his years as a U.S. senator, Ronald Reagan confidante, presidential aspirant and, now, legal adviser and lobbyist.

Laxalt, 77, refused to write an insider's "kiss-and-tell" account of the Reagan years. He says he won't retire on proceeds from the memoir because it avoids a salable mix of "gossip, sex or scandal."

But he's hopeful it will end up on Nevada library shelves and inspire coming generations to public service.

Written at the urging of family and friends, the book took three years.

"I developed a healthy respect for people who write for a living," Laxalt says. "It's really hard work - but really satisfying."

Always a note-taker, Laxalt had piles of material. The hardest job, he says, was to sort through loose notes and develop a framework.

"After that, it was a cakewalk," he says. "The story just flowed."

The memoir begins and ends with references to "Sweet Promised Land," his brother Robert's classic story about their father, who left the Pyrenees in 1906 to herd sheep in the American West.

Laxalt says he wasn't coached by Robert - just encouraged - and won't try to challenge his status as a prominent Nevada author.

"I approached it from a purely amateur standpoint," Laxalt says. "I just wanted to tell the story from my personal perspective."

The book includes accounts familiar to many Nevada political junkies, starting with Laxalt's childhood in what was then the nation's smallest capital city - just over 1,000 residents in the 1930s.

His parents ran a small hotel-restaurant on Carson's main street, and Laxalt heard lots of political talk, including bourbon-lubricated speeches from top elected officials who would show up for dinner and drinks.

After college and law school, Laxalt returned to Carson, married Jackie Ross and practiced law with her father, who later became a federal judge. He started his political career by getting elected district attorney in 1954.

A conservative Republican, Laxalt won his first statewide race, for lieutenant governor, in 1962 and was elected governor in 1966.

"Not bad for a Basque sheepherder's kid," writes Laxalt.

After one term as governor, Laxalt left politics and joined his family in a trouble-plagued hotel-casino venture. His marriage with his first wife, with whom he had raised six children, ended in divorce in 1972. He married Carol Wilson in 1976. The book is dedicated to her.

Laxalt returned to politics by winning a U.S. Senate seat in 1974. When he retired after two terms in 1987, he had become one of the most popular figures in Nevada's political history.

If it sounds mostly storybook, it's not. The memoir also recounts his horrific World War II combat duty in the Philippines, his loss of a U.S. Senate race in 1964 by a scant 84 votes, and a bitter libel lawsuit against the Sacramento Bee over stories about the family's Ormsby House hotel-casino.

He blames the Bee for the suicide - one day before the lawsuit was settled - of his brother Peter's ex-wife, who had been interviewed by the paper.

But the highs clearly outweigh the lows as Laxalt writes about his life, glossing over some events but disclosing other details not printed before - like the first of many phone conversations with billionaire Howard Hughes, whose casino acquisitions helped to rid Las Vegas of mob influences.

He also reprints a revealing letter to him from Richard Nixon suggesting re-election strategies for Reagan - including sharply cutting "VIP types" from White House events and inviting more people "who have worked in the vineyards."

Gov. Kenny Guinn, in the book's preface, credits Laxalt for repairing damaged ties between state and federal governments over Nevada's gambling industry, and with helping to launch the state's community college system, medical school, and Lake Tahoe preservation efforts.

In Washington, Laxalt was one of Reagan's closest and most trusted friends, his link to the Senate and his national campaign chairman, and general chairman of the Republican Party.

Laxalt made a brief run for president in 1987 a period he describes as "the four most miserable months of my life."

Now, he's happy to be out of politics, but concerned about corrupting influences on campaigns due to high costs.

When meetings with members of Congress "are first screened by campaign operatives,or when such a meeting is followed up by a request for a contribution, something is wrong," Laxalt writes.